Defense of Freedom nominee

Portland man survives bullet to his head while in Iraq

Early X-rays showed doctors this bullet was in K.C. Chastain’s head, but a scan later showed his skull wasn’t fractured, the round had skirted the bone to his right ear. Many hospital employees visited and photographed the unusual circumstance.

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As an employee of KBR Inc., a Houston-based contractor, K.C. Chastain works construction alongside Marines in Iraq.

Contributed photo

K.C. Chastain played at the University of Texas at El Paso after graduating from Gregory-Portland High School, where he was an all-state football player in 1997.
Contributed photo

PORTLAND - An insurgent's AK-47 round now is in K.C. Chastain's pocket, a better place than his head.

The Portland resident was working construction alongside Marines July 29 in Ramadi, Al Anbar Province, Iraq, when he was shot.

Kenneth Ward "K.C." Chastain has been nominated for the Defense of Freedom Award, the civilian equivalent of the military's Purple Heart, by the operations department of KBR Inc., the Houston-based contractor he works for in Iraq.

Chastain, 29, a former Gregory-Portland High School all-state football player, was helping unload a convoy of supplies, he said. He had just walked over to the group's safety coordinator, Walter Hudson, an Army Ranger now a civilian, also from Portland. "I put my hands on his shoulder and said we need to get out of here, there's too much fire."

Firing came from trucks on a nearby road, he said.

Before he moved his hands, he was hit.

"I felt it through my teeth," he said. "I thought some Iraqi chucked a rock at me, they love doing that."

While being swarmed by comrades and finally a medic he heard someone yell that a man was shot in the head.

"I told the medic, 'Go help that guy, I was just hit with a rock.' I could see that medic was terrified before saying it was me."

Early X-rays showed nearby doctors there was a bullet in his head, but a scan later showed his skull wasn't fractured, the round had skirted the bone to his right ear.

Chastain is recuperating at a forward operating base.

"I'm on my feet," Chastain said. "Of course the guys are teasing me, saying it hit me in the one place it couldn't hurt."

But his experience was a "death ride for two hours" being flown in Black Hawk helicopters to two hospitals, before he knew he would survive. "Finally a neurosurgeon told me 'You're the first one I've taken a round from their head who's lived.'"

The creation of the Defense of Freedom Award, to honor civilian employees of the Department of Defense who are killed or injured on duty, was announced in September 2001 by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

The decision to award the medal to Chastain is up to the Defense Department.

"Our employees who work in Iraq, and throughout the Middle East region, perform their daily work in an environment that is both hostile and ever-changing," said Heather L. Browne, director of corporate communications for KBR.

Chastain runs a work crew that does support construction for a base. The base is a wire encampment with about 1,300 U.S. soldiers, contractors and Iraqi soldiers, along the Euphrates River in a former orchard of a Saddam Hussein pleasure palace, Chastain said.

"Contractors in Iraq make untold sacrifices," said Chris Isleib, a Pentagon spokesman. "The conditions are difficult, the recognition is meager and the dangers are very real. Some of them contribute greatly to our effort of bringing democracy to the people of Iraq. Those people make us very proud, and it's very important for us to tell them, through such official ways, that we care about what they do."

Chastain's father, Ken Chastain is working in Kirkuk, Iraq, for the same contractor.

His mother, Jeanne Chastain, a local lawyer, is left behind to worry about both.

"Being able to talk to K.C. and his dad on phones gives me more information than I need," she said. "It's good to hear their voices, but you don't like hearing .50-caliber machine guns in the background.

"K.C. has always been on the edge of stuff. He likes excitement and a certain element of danger. He has a zest for life and has always done things 110 percent. But I've noticed since in Iraq, he's been dedicated to those Marines. It's not just the physical things they need to survive. Because of the heat he makes sure they don't leave that base without ice. I'd be so proud to travel to witness him receive the award."

Chastain expects to return to Texas for a short visit in September.

He was an all-state football player, a defensive end and punter, for Gregory-Portland in 1997 and played college ball for the University of Texas at El Paso.

Chastain has organized touch football games to muster camaraderie among the troops in Iraq since arriving in April 2006.

"I was a selfish person back home on the beach," he said. "Now I'm living for whatever I can do for these soldiers. Here, it's politics out the window," he said. "You get attached to these soldiers, a bond of people doing impossible things, and I stand in their shadows.

"When I came, it was about money and me wanting to better my family," said Chastain, who has a 3-year-old daughter, Aubree. "Now I don't want to leave these guys, I'm going to stay until it's done. I've made friends who go out the wire and don't come back. We all deal with that."